Memorandum from John Champion
I noticed the current work the Defence
Committee is undertaking and wondered if an anecdote about a relative,
one of your constituents, might strike a chord.
A tiny number of serving soldiers leave
the Army to go to medical school as mature students. They are
required to retire from the Army to do so, despite the seemingly
perennial shortage of military doctors. Additionally, they receive
no assistance from Defence Medical Services to gain a place at
a medical school, which remains highly competitive, although MoD
is a key stakeholder at Birmingham (which offers a 4 year course
for mature applicants).
One assumes the underlying logic is financial,
yet the cost of paying the small numbers involved as serving officers
or soldiers would be minute in the larger picture. Policy implementation
appears to be slavish. There is noting to prevent anyone applying
for a bursary for the last 3 years of medical training or applying
to rejoin the services after qualifying, but that is more haphazard
than continuing engagement
It seems strange that MoD does not make
any effort to capture the continued service of a few doctors with
full Sandhurst or non"commissioned training and previous
military experience. I assume the policy is the same across the
other Services.
23 June 2007
| 
